By Ryan Menard

The news last month that the Gillette Company may be bought out by home product giant Procter and Gamble left many of the razor company’s employees, including its 116 Northeastern students, wondering what their future held.

Co-op hopefuls will be affected as soon as the January 2006 session if the buy-out goes through, said Vice President of Co-op Lynn Lyford. The company was last year’s biggest co-op employer, and has hired many former part-time interns.

Students have worked in various jobs at the Gillette corporate headquarters in the Prudential Tower, and at the manufacturing plant in South Boston.

Losses are expected for co-op positions in accounting, finance and information technology among others, but it is still too early to know the extent of the potential merger’s impact, Lyford said.

Despite the potential losses, Lyford said she remains optimistic the outcome of the buyout will not be as bad as it could be.

“We have outstanding relations with Gillette and they’ve been supportive of co-op for an exceptionally long time,” Lyford said. “Hopefully our strong ties with Gillette will carry over.”

Students who are currently employed at Gillette said they have learned a lot from their on-the-job training at the over 100-year-old company.

“It’s been a learning experience,” said a first time co-op employee with Gillette. The employee’s name was omitted because Gillette workers have been asked not to discuss company business. “I’ve never been in such a corporate environment.”

The employee said the company has been a great asset to Northeastern, though things are expected to change soon.

“There are so many people who work there who went to Northeastern and co-oped there and it’s bad,” she said.